Happy Beer Day

Once again, this will be a brief post. Between Beer Geek 101, home improvement projects, work and parenthood I’m kind of short for time this week. Without further ado…

Beer Geek 101 was quite a success! We had over 50 reservations and most showed up. The “PA system” was, um,…I won’t talk about that anymore, but everything else was pretty fun. Joe Donahue was a great moderator, and both Phil Leinhart and Paul McErlean brought their vast brewing experience along to impress and educate. I particularly liked Ommegang’s Belgian Pale Ale, which Phil shared with us. Brewed with American hops and Belgian yeast, it reminded me a bit of a fresh Orval. I’d be happy to have brewed it myself.

My thanks go to all of you who participated in this event, and I hope you had a good time.

On to other news:

I’m sure most of you would agree that Prohibition was a whacky idea. To make something as readily obtained and culturally significant as alcohol illegal was misguided at best. The United States wasn’t the only country to be affected by a temperance movement. Many other western nations experienced similar right-wing pressures to enforce abstinence. What I didn’t know until this week was how long these laws lasted.

This week, Iceland is celebrating 21 years of legal beer. That’s right, beer was illegal on that tiny island nation from 1915 until March 1st, 1989! At first, all alcohol was banned, but that didn’t last too long. I’m guessing that when you live on a small island with nearly 24 hour darkness for a good chunk of the year, alcohol might be sort of essential.

Wine and hard liquor were made legal in 1935, but beer was not. The logic was pretty twisted: beer is cheap and therefore people can consume more of it. External forces also helped bring about the partial repeal of Icelandic Prohibition. Spain threatened to stop buying Iceland’s fish if Iceland didn’t resume importing Spanish wine.

When you are next enjoying a beer, raise your glass and toast Iceland, and be happy you didn’t live there prior to 1989. Happy Beer Day!